Answer message recommendation method and device therefor

ABSTRACT

Provided are a device for transmitting an answer message including a display configured to display information, a communicator configured to receive a question message from another device, a processor configured to control the display to display graphics representing a plurality of pieces of recommendation information which are includable in an answer message for the received question message and relations between the plurality of pieces of recommendation information, and a user input unit configured to receive a user input that selects at least one of the plurality of pieces of recommendation information, wherein the communicator is further configured to transmit an answer message including the selected recommendation information to the another device according to the user input.

This application is the U.S. national phase of International ApplicationNo. PCT/KR2016/009796 filed Sep. 1, 2016 which designated the U.S. andclaims priority to KR Patent Application No. 10-2015-0123491 filed Sep.1, 2015 and KR Patent Application No. 10-2016-0103550 filed Aug. 16,2016, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Devices and methods consistent with what is disclosed herein relate to amethod for providing user interface for analyzing a received message andcreating an answer message based the analyzed message or arecommendation answer message and a device thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

With the development of natural language processing technology, a deviceanalyzes the meaning of a message exchanged between users. The naturallanguage processing technology includes a technique that allows acomputer to understand human language, or a technique that expressesinformation processed by a computer in human language for communication.

Following a trend for mobilization and slimming of a device, a use mayeasily carry around a device, but it becomes increasingly difficult forthe user to input letters into a device. Therefore, there is anincreasing need to send a correct answer message in response to areceived message with minimal input.

SUMMARY

An aspect of the embodiments relates to a user interface required forcreating an answer message and an answer message recommendation method.

According to an embodiment, there is provided a device for transmittingan answer message including a display configured to display information,a communicator configured to receive a question message from anotherdevice, a processor configured to control the display to displaygraphics representing a plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation which are includable in an answer message for the receivedquestion message and relations between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information, and a user input unit configured to receivea user input that selects at least one of the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information, wherein the communicator is furtherconfigured to transmit an answer message including the selectedrecommendation information to the another device according to the userinput.

The graphics representing the relations between the plurality of piecesof recommendation information may have a tree structure or a radialstructure.

The plurality of pieces of recommendation information may be connectedto one another based on weight values regarding at least one attributeamong preference, importance, location, time and atmosphere of theplurality of pieces of recommendation information.

The plurality of pieces of recommendation information may be generatedbased on a content registered by a user.

The plurality of pieces of recommendation information may be generatedbased on tag information and importance of the registered content.

The plurality of pieces of recommendation information may be generatedbased on data retrieved, captured, photographed or noted by a user.

In response to the plurality of pieces of recommendation informationbeing images, the answer message may include a keyword obtained from atleast one image selected from the images.

In response to the plurality of pieces of recommendation informationbeing images, the answer message may include at least one image selectedfrom the images.

In response to receiving a second question message from yet anotherdevice while the question message received from the another device isdisplayed on a dialog window, the processor may be further configured tocontrol the display to automatically display identification informationof the yet another device on an input field of the dialog windowaccording to a user input that inputs tag information on the input fieldof the dialog window.

In response to receiving a second question message from yet anotherdevice while the question message received from the another device isdisplayed on a dialog window, the communicator may be further configuredto transmit a second answer message to the yet another device accordingto an user input that inputs tag information, identification informationof the yet another device, and the second answer message for the secondquestion message on an input field of the dialog window.

According to an embodiment, there is provided a method for transmittingan answer message of a device that transmits an answer message includingreceiving a question message from another device, displaying graphicsrepresenting a plurality of pieces of recommendation information whichare includable in an answer message for the received question messageand relations between the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation, and in response to a user input that selects at least oneof the plurality of pieces of recommendation information, transmittingan answer message including the selected recommendation information tothe another device.

According to an embodiment, a device provides a user interface forinputting an answer message as receiving a message from another device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B are views provided to explain a method for providingnecessary information for a user to input an answer message by a devicein response to receiving a message according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a device according toan embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an engine that generates an answer messageaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a view provided to explain a process of generating keywordsfrom an image according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C are views illustrating recommendation informationand relations between the recommendation information according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are views illustrating recommendation information for ananswer message according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating recommendation information for an answermessage according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are views illustrating recommendation information for ananswer message according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are views illustrating relations between recommendationinformation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 10A, 10B, and 10C are flowcharts provided to explain a method forproviding a recommendation answer message by using a communicationdevice and a wearable device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are views illustrating a process of determining datato be used for generating an answer message according to an embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIGS. 12A, 12B, 13A, and 13B are concept views provided to explain aprocess of providing an answer message according to another embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C, 14D, 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D are views illustratingscreens for providing images as recommendation information according toanother embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 16A, 16B, and 16C are views illustrating screens for providing ananswer message to a plurality of devices according to another embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating configuration of a deviceaccording to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 is a view illustrating a system for controlling an externaldevice by using recommendation information according to anotherembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 19 and 20 are in-use views provided to explain a method forcontrolling an external device by using recommendation informationaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIGS. 21, 22, 23, and 24 are flowcharts provided to explain a method forproviding recommendation information which is includable in an answermessage by a device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should beunderstood, however, that it is not intended to limit the techniquesdescribed in this disclosure to the specific embodiments, but includesvarious modifications, equivalents, and/or alternatives of theembodiments of the present disclosure. Like reference numerals in thedrawings denote like elements.

It will be further understood that terms such as “including”,“including”, “including”, “having,” etc., are intended to indicate theexistence of the features (e.g. numbers, function, operations,components, or the like) disclosed in the specification, and are notintended to preclude the possibility that one or more other features mayexist or may be added.

In an embodiment, the expressions “A or B,” “at least one of A and/orB,” or “one or more of A and/or B,” and the like include all possiblecombinations of the listed components. For example, “A or B,” “at leastone of A and B,” or “at least one of A or B” includes (1) at least oneA, (2) at least one B, and (3) at least one A and at least one B.

The term such as “first” and “second” used in various exampleembodiments may modify various elements regardless of an order and/orimportance of the corresponding elements, and does not limit thecorresponding elements.

When it is mentioned that any element (e.g., a first element) may be“operatively or communicatively coupled with/to” another element (e.g.,a second element), it is to be understood that any such element may bedirectly connected to the other element or may be connected via anotherelement (e.g., a third element) . On the other hand, when it ismentioned that an element (e.g., a first element) is “directlyconnected” or “directly contacted” to another element (e.g., a secondelement), it can be understood that there is no other element (e.g., athird element) between the element and another element.

The phrase “configured to” as used in an embodiment can be replaced by“suitable for”, “having the capacity to”, “designed to”, “adapted to”,“made to” or “capable of ”. The “configured to” may not necessarily mean“specifically designed to” in hardware. Instead, in some circumstances,the expression “a device configured to” may mean that the device is“capable of ˜” with other devices or components. For example, theexpression “a sub-processor configured to execute A, B, and C” may beimplemented as a processor dedicated to performing the operation (e.g.,an embedded processor), or a generic-purpose processor (e.g., a CPU oran application processor) that perform the corresponding operations byexecuting one or more software programs stored in a memory device.

The terms used in an embodiment are used only to describe certainembodiments and may not be intended to limit the scope of otherembodiments. The singular expressions may include plural expressionsunless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Terms used herein,including technical or scientific terms, may have the same meaning ascommonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of the present disclosure. General predefined terms used in thepresent disclosure may be interpreted in the same or similar sense asthe contextual meanings of the related art and, unless explicitlydefined in the present disclosure, include ideally or in excessivelyformal sense. Optionally, terms defined in the present disclosure cannotbe construed to exclude embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are views provided to explain a method for providingnecessary information for a user to input an answer message by a device100 in response to receiving a message according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 1A, the device 100 may provide a user interfacerequired for inputting an answer message in response to receiving amessage from another device.

For example, in response to receiving a message “where shall we meet?”,the device 100 may display an answer message for the received message.For example, in response to receiving the message “where shall wemeet?”, the device 100 may analyze that a sender intends to ask about aplace to meet and recommend candidate messages for answering such as “Ido not know 102”, “well”, “why?”, “anywhere”, or the like.

The device 100 may provide a user interface 10 “view recommendationinformation” for providing recommendation information to be included inan answer message. The device 100 may receive a user input that selectsthe user interface 10 “view recommendation information”.

As shown in (b) of FIG. 1A, according to the user input that selects theuser interface 10, the device 100 may display graphics 112,113,114,115and 116 representing a plurality of pieces of recommendation information101,102,103,104,105 and 106 which are includable in an answer messageand relations between the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation. The graphics may have a tree structure, and the examples ofthe tree structure include a node structure, a hierarchy structure, andthe like.

According to a user input that selects a recommendation information“food talk” 105 as one of the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation 101 to 106, As shown in (c) of FIG. 1B, the device 100 maygenerate an answer message “let's go to a hot place near Gangnam stationon the Wednesday food talk 11” including the recommendation information105 selected by the user. For another example, the device 100 maygenerate an answer message including part of the recommendationinformation 105 selected by the user. For example, the device 100 maygenerate an answer message including “Wednesfood”, “Wednesday food”,etc. which are abbreviations of “Wednesday food talk”.

According to a user input that selects the answer message 11, as shownin (d) of FIG. 1B, the device 100 may display the answer message 11 on amessage input window.

According to a user input that selects a send button 30, the device 100may transmit the answer message 11 displayed on the message input windowto another device.

Displaying graphics representing the recommendation information and therelations between the recommendation information may enhance visibilityof a user that generates an answer message and the ease of retrieval maybe enhanced.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a device according toan embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 2, the device 100 according to an embodiment mayinclude a communicator 130, a user input unit 145, a display 110 and aprocessor 170. However, all the illustrated elements are not essential.The device 100 may be embodied with more or less than the illustratedelements.

In addition, an engine 200 shown in FIG. 3 may be embodied with theelements shown in FIG. 2. For example, the engine 200 shown in FIG. 3may be embodied when a program stored in a memory (not shown) isexecuted by the processor 170.

The communicator 130 may receive a message from another device. Thecommunicator 130 may transmit an answer message to another device.

The processor 170 may determine a plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation which are includable in an answer message for the receivedquestion message and relations between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information.

The display 110 may display the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation to be included in the answer message for the receivedquestion message, which are determined by the processor 170, and therelations between the plurality of pieces of recommendation information.

The user input unit 145 may receive a user input that selectsinformation to be included in an answer message. The user input unit 145may receive a user input that selects a menu. According to the userinput that selects the menu, the processor 170 may execute a functioncorresponding to the selected menu.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an engine that generates an answer messageaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The device 100 may include the engine 200 that generates an answermessage.

Referring to FIG. 3, the engine 200 that generates an answer message mayinclude a message analyzer module 210 for determining the sender'sintention of the received message and a candidate reply generator module230 for generating a recommendation answer message based on the analyzedsender's intention.

The message analyzer module 210 may determine the sender's intention ofthe received message. The message analyzer module 210 may include anormalize module 121, a morphologic/syntactic analyzer module 214 and asemantic analyzer module 216.

The normalize module 212 may restore slangs or abbreviations included inthe received message into standard words.

The normalize module 212 may restore slangs or abbreviations intostandard words based on a predetermined formula. Based on the dictionarycontaining the slangs or abbreviations matched with the standard words,the normalize module 212 may restore the slangs or abbreviationsincluded in the message into the standard words. The dictionarycontaining the slangs or abbreviations matched with the standard wordsmay be shown as table 1 below.

TABLE 1 Slang/abbreviation - standard word standard word frequency

87

81

77

71

53

52

47

42

37

35

33

30

28

27

23

22

21

21

20

20

20

For example, in response to receiving a message “lol it is freakingfunny”, the normalize module 212 may determine “lol” and “freaking” asslang and change the “lol” into an exclamation “ah” and the “freaking”into “really”. For example, in response to receiving a message“Gil-dong, where shall we meet for dinner L8ER? lol”, the normalizemodule 212 may determine “L8ER” as a non-grammatical word and change the“L8ER” to “later”.

In addition, the device 100 may store the words, the expressions, or theway of talking in the messages exchanged between the message sender andthe user corresponding to the message sender. Accordingly, the normalizemodule 212 may restore the slangs and abbreviations included in thereceived message into the standard words based on the words, theexpressions, or the way of talking included in the messages exchangedbetween the message sender and the user.

In addition, the normalize module 212 may analyze conversations the userhad with an acquaintance in the past and store the words, the way oftalking, the expressions of the acquaintance. Accordingly, the normalizemodule 212 may restore the slangs and abbreviations included in the textmessage sent from a message sender into the standard words based on thewords, the expressions, or the way of talking of the message sender.

The morphologic/syntactic analyzer module 214 may determine morphemescontained in a message and sentence components of the determinedmorphemes.

For example, the morphologic/syntactic analyzer module 214 may determinemorphemes “meeting” “now” “come to” “please” included in a message“please come to the meeting now”. The morphologic/syntactic analyzermodule 214 may determine sentence component “now” as adverb, “come” asdescriptive word, and “please” as honorific form.

The morphologic/syntactic analyzer module 214 may determine the verb,the sender's intention of the received message and the presence of thehonorific form in the message based on the determined sentencecomponents. For example, the morphologic/syntactic analyzer module 214may determine “come to” as the verb contained in the message “pleasecome to the meeting now”, the sender's intention of the received messageas an order to come to the meeting, and the received message as themessage in the honorific form.

The semantic analyzer module 216 may determine the named entity, thesender's intention, the presence of the honorific form and the emotionof the sender based on the morphemes and sentence components analyzed bythe morphologic/syntactic analyzer module 214 and determine a responsetype.

The semantic analyzer module 216 may include a named entity recognizermodule 216A, an intention recognizer module 216B, a honorific recognizer216C, an emotion recognizer 216D, and a reply type determiner 216E.

The named entity recognizer module 216A may recognize the named entitycontained in the received message. The named entity may refer to a nounor a number that has a unique meaning in the document. The named entityname may be categorized into name expression such as a person name, aplace name, an organization name, etc., time expression such as date ortime and numeral expression such as amount or percentage. The namedentity recognition may refer to recognizing the named entity included inthe message and determining the type of recognized named entity.

For example, in response to receiving a message “Mr. Gil-dong, whereshall we meet for dinner later?”, the named entity recognizer module216A may recognize “Mr. Gil-dong” and “dinner” as named entities andrecognize the “Mr. Gil-dong” as a person name and the “dinner” as a mealin the evening. For example, the named entity recognizer module 216A maydetermine “Mr. Gil-dong” as a person name based on the phone book storedin the device 100 and if the relationship with the “Mr. Gil-dong” islisted in the phone book, obtain the relationship between the “Mr.Gil-dong” and the user. The named entity recognizer module 216A maydetermine “dinner” as a meal in the evening based on the pre-storednamed entity dictionary.

The intention recognizer module 216B may determine the sender'sintention expressed in the message. The sender's intention may includegreetings, questions, commands, requests, suggestions, emotionalexpressions or information delivery, but the present disclosure is notlimited thereto.

The intention recognizer module 216B may determine the sender'sintention of the received message based on the analyzed morpheme, entityname, sentence component, or type of word.

For example, the intention recognizer module 216B may determine that thesender's intention of the received message is an order if the message isin English and the first word of the message is a “Be” verb or a verbprototype. Also, if the message is in English and the first word of themessage includes a word for asking a favor such as “would you” or“please”, the intention recognizer module 216B may determine that thesender's intention is a request.

If the sender' intention of the received message is a question, theintention recognizer module 216B may determine whether the intention ofthe received message is a yes or no question, a question for asking toselect at least one of a plurality of choices, a question to agree ordisagree, or a question for asking one of the Five W's and One H rules(5W1H). For example, if the received message is “Mr. Gil-dong, whereshall we meet for a dinner today?”, the intention recognizer module 216Bmay determine that the message is a question for asking about a place inthe Five W′s and One H rules based on the sentence component “where” ofthe morphemes of the message and the question mark “?”.

The intention recognizer module 216B may categorize the sender'sintention of the message into a plurality of categories as shown inTable 2, and may classify the categories into a plurality of lowercategories.

TABLE 2 The sender's intention Level1 Level2 greeting meet farewell newyear christmas morning night ask after question location time age pricecount person activity confirm reason simple answer yes_no agreementcommand/request/suggest/help move work meet invite express emotionirritated happy surprised worried sad angry inform location time ageprice count person activity confirm reason thanks to user to thirdperson appologies to user to third person sympathy condolencescongratulations compliment blame to user to third person complaint touser to third person call to user to third person

For example, if it is determined that the sender's intention of thereceived message is a question, the intention recognizer module 216B maydetermine which is questioned among of location, time, age, price, thenumber of times, person, activity, reason by the received message.

The honorific recognizer module 216C may determine whether a message isin the honorific form. For example, if the message includes the morphemein the honorific form such as “please”, “would”, “could” or the like,the honorific recognizer 216C may determine that the received message isin the honorific form.

The emotion recognizer module 216D may recognize the emotion of thesender expressed in the message. The sender's feelings may includehappiness, fun, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, or the like, but thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto.

The emotion recognizer module 216D may recognize the emotion of thesender based on the exclamation, slang, or emoticon included in themessage. For example, if the received message is “I am late -.,-;” andthe emoticon “-.,-” indicates unhappy, the emotion recognizer module216D may determine that the emotion of the sender is unhappy.

The reply type determiner module 216E may determine the type of receivedmessage. For example, the reply type determiner module 216E maydetermine the type of message based on the sender's intention of themessage determined by the intention recognizer module 216B. For example,if the intention of the received message is a yes or no question, aninstruction, a request, or a suggestion, the reply type determinermodule 216E may determine the type of message as the yes or no question.Further, when the sender's intention of the received message is aquestion for asking data belonging to a specific category, the replytype determiner module 216E may determine the type of message as a shortanswer type. The question for asking the data belonging to a specificcategory may include, for example, a question for asking specificinformation (e.g. “What is the Hae Jun's number?”), and a question forasking what the sender and the user want to do together, time, place,and way (e.g. “what time shall we meet at night?”). The reply typedeterminer module 216E may classify the message type into a plurality ofcategories as shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 Message type Level1 Level2 Level3 yes no yes n/a no n/a shortanswer person relation phone number job age location home office schoolsubway gps value date/time relative day of week hour number count dateactivity exercising size price age studying working relaxing cookingcleaning traveling car driving watching tv breakfast lunch dinner snackfood bibimbap bulgogi spaghetti risotto pizza sushi ramen choose one Aor B n/a A or B or C n/a a plurality of X n/a custom greeting How_areyou How_are_you_doing What_are_you_doing weather Nice_weather good-byeHave_a_nice_day Have_a_nice_dinner Have_a_nice_weekend Good_night

As shown in Table 3, the message type may include a yes or no type, ashort answer type, a type for selecting one of a plurality of givenitems, etc., and one message type may be classified into a plurality oflower categories. For example, in the case of the short answer type, theshort answer type may be classified into a specific person-based answertype, a specific location-based answer type, a specific number-basedanswer type, and the like. Table 3 is merely an example of an answertype, and the answer type may be designated corresponding to thesender's intention of each received message.

The candidate reply generator module 230 may generate at least onerecommendation answer message to be provided to the user. The candidatereply generator module 230 may include a reply searcher module 232, areply sentence generator module 234, and a corpus database 236.

The corpus database 236 may store a response intention corresponding tothe sender's intention. For example, the corpus database 236 may storepositive, negative, and unknown answers as a response intention to theyes or no question. For example, the corpus database 236 may store asuggestion or an advice based on data selected by the user as a responseto a question (HOW_WILL_WE_DO_QUESTION) asking about what the sender andthe user want to do together, time, place, way, etc.

TABLE 4 The sender's intention The response intention YES_OR_NO_QUESTIONANSWER_POSITIVE ANSWER_NEGATIVE ANSWER_NOT_SURE INFORMATION_QUESTIONANSWER_XX ANSER_DO_NOT_KNOW HOW_WILL_WE_DO_QUESTION SUGGEST_XX LETS_XXANSER_DO_NOT_KNOW SUGGESTION ANSWER_AGREE ANSWER_DISAGREEANSER_DO_NOT_KNOW congratulations ANSWER_THANKYOU HAVE_A_NICE_WEEDENDHAVE_A_NICE_WEEDEND

The corpus database 236 may store a recommendation answer messagecorresponding to a response intention. For example, referring to Table5, the corpus database 236 may be store “have a nice dinner,” “enjoyyour dinner,” and “enjoy your meal” corresponding to the responseintention to have a nice dinner (HAVE_A_NICE_DINNER).

TABLE 5 Recommendation Response intention (Corpus The presence of answerID) honorific form message (Corpus) HAVE_A_NICE_DINNER Non-honorificform

 

Honorific form

 

HAVE_A_NICE_WEEDEND Honorific form

 

Non-honorific form

ASK_WHO Non-honorific form

Honorific form

ANSWER_LOCATION_XX Honorific form XX 

Non-honorific form XX 

X 

SUGGEST_XX Honorific form XX 

Non-honorific form XX 

The reply searcher module 232 may determine a response intention basedon the sender's intention of the received message. For example, thereply searcher module 232 may obtain a response intention correspondingto the sender's intention from the corpus database 236.

The reply searcher module 232 may determine the recommendationinformation selected by the user as the response intention. For example,in response to a receiving a simple question for asking about a place,the reply searcher module 232 may provide a plurality of pieces ofselectable recommendation information and determine recommendationinformation selected by the user as the response intention.

For example, when the received message is “Mr. Gil-dong, where shall wemeet for a dinner today?”, the semantic analyzer module 216 maydetermine that the sender's intention of the received message is forasking about a place to meet for dinner. When the sender's intention ofthe message is for asking about a place to meet for dinner, the replysearcher module 232 may display a plurality of places or a map and inresponse to receiving a user input that selects at least one of theplurality of places or a point of the map, determine a suggestion tomeet at the selected place as a response intention.

In response to determining at least one response intention, the replysearcher module 232 may obtain a recommendation answer messagecorresponding to the determined response intention from the corpusdatabase 236. The reply searcher module 232 may determine whether to usethe honorific form to the answer message based on the presence of thehonorific form in the received message and the relationships between thesender and the user, and if the honorific form is used, the replysearcher module 232 may obtain other recommendation information.

The reply sentence generator module 234 may change the obtainedrecommendation information into the words, the expressions, or the wayof talking in the message exchanged between the user and the sender. Thedevice 100 may store the words, the expressions, or the way of talkingin the message exchanged between the user and the sender correspondingto the sender. Accordingly, the reply sentence generator module 234 mayobtain at least one message corresponding to the response intention andchange the words, the expressions, or the way of talking in the obtainedmessage into the words, the expressions, or the way of talkingcorresponding to the sender.

For example, if the user used to add “ooo” to the end of the sentence ofthe message to be addressed to the sender, and the obtainedrecommendation answer message is “how about Garosu-gil?”, the replysentence generator module 234 may change “how about the Garosu-gil ?” to“Hooow about the Garosu-gil?”.

The device 10 may analyze the conversations exchanged between the userand an acquaintance and store the words, the way of talking, and theexpression used by the acquaintance. The reply sentence generator module234 may generate a recommendation answer message according to the words,the way of talking or the expressions of the sender.

Accordingly, the device 100 may automatically generate an answer messagereflecting intimacy with the sender.

A tree generation module 235 may determine a plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information based on the obtained data and generaterelations between the plurality of pieces of recommendation information.For example, the tree generation module 235 may provide a tree structurethat represents the relations between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information to the user and transmit at least one ofrecommendation information selected from the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information by the user to the reply searcher module 232.The reply searcher module 232 may determine at least one ofrecommendation information obtained from the tree generation module 235as a response intention. In the tree structure, the plurality of piecesof recommendation information may be arranged or grouped based on theinformation, use frequency, similarity between words of therecommendation information.

The tree generation module 235 may collect data required for generatingthe recommendation information. For example, the tree generation module235 may collect data from the corpus database 236. The tree generationmodule 235 may obtain user context from a context framework 300. Thetree generation module 235 may collect data from a camera, anapplication that stores images, a memo application, a web pagingapplication, a message application, etc.

The tree generation module 235 may be necessary for generating aplurality of pieces of recommendation information and use dataregistered by the user. For example, the user may execute a dataregistration mode (or, an auto thinking mode). In response to the dataregistration mode being executed, the data retrieved, captured, andnoted by the user may be determined to be necessary for generatingrecommendation information having a high priority. In response to acontent is being provided, the user may select a data registration menuand register the content being provided as data necessary for generatingrecommendation information. The user may register the tag and importanceof the content. The example of the case of determining data to be usedfor recommendation information by a user through a data registrationmode will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 11A and FIG.11B.

The tree generation module 235 may generate keywords based on thecollected data. For example, the tree generation module 235 may extracttexts from the content, the link information, and the like to generatekeywords. The tree generation module 235 may generate keywords using themetadata, the tag or the importance of the content input by the user.When the content is an image or a video, the tree generation module 235may analyze the image or the video to generate keywords. For example,from an image 401 of FIG. 4, the tree generation module 235 may generatekeywords such as the “chicken”, “Hongdae area”, “outchicken”, “chips”,“hot place”, “spicy chicken”, “beer”, “chicken and beer”, and the like

The tree generation module 235 may categorize the generated keywords.The plurality of keywords may be included in the group of arepresentative keyword. For example, “spicy chicken”, “outchicken” and“chicken” may be included a representative keyword group of “chicken”.

The tree generation module 235 may determine keywords or arepresentative keyword as recommendation information corresponding to aresponse intention and provide the recommendation information in a treestructure to the user. For example, a plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information may correspond to respective nodes in a nodestructure.

FIGS. 5A to 5C are views illustrating recommendation information andrelations between the recommendation information according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5A, the tree generation module 235 may classifyrecommendation information according to specific objects or conditionsrequired for an event and a purpose and define relations between therecommendation information. For example, the recommendation informationmay be classified into categories of “date”, “family”, or “traveldestination” depending on the purpose. In this case, the recommendationinformation related to “date” may be, for example, “movie”, “activity”and “hot place”. The “hot place’ may relate to other recommendationinformation such as “Gangnam”, “formal’, or the like. In addition, otherrecommendation information may continue to relate to anotherrecommendation information. For example, “Gangnam” may further have arelationship with “food talk hot place”.

The plurality of pieces of recommendation information may be linked toone another based on weight values regarding various attributes such asat least one of preference, importance, location, time, and atmosphereof the plurality of pieces of recommendation information. For example,“movie”, “hot place A”, and “travel” associated with “date” may beconnected to one another based on a preference weight (e.g. good for(w)). In addition, the “hot place A” may be connected to the “Gangnam”based on a location weight (e.g. located in (w)). In addition, the“formal” may be connected to the “hot place A” based on anequality/inclusion weight (e.g. is a (w)). In addition, the “food talkhot place” may be connected to the “Gangnam” based on the locationweight and the equality/inclusion weight.

The recommendation information may be grouped by category, and therepresentative recommendation information may be defined as a node ofthe tree structure. For example, the representative recommendationinformation may be a “hot place”, which is the representative of “hotplace A”, “ hot place B” and “hot place C”. The representativerecommendation information may be “movie”, “sports”, and “travel”, whichare representative keywords in the specific field.

The tree generation module 235 may determine recommendation informationhaving a high weight relating to the sender based on the sender'sintention of the received message.

For example, in FIG. 5B, when the sender is “person B”, the treegeneration module 235 may obtain “date” as recommendation informationhaving a high weight relating to the “person B”. The tree generationmodule 235 may obtain “hot place A” as recommendation information havinga high weight relating to the “date” and obtain “Gangnam” asrecommendation information having a high weight relating to the “hotplace A”.

Referring to FIG. 5C, the recommendation information based on thesender's intention of the “person B” may be provided in the form of treestructure. For example, the recommendation information and the relationsbetween the recommendation information may be indicated by nodes andarrows connecting the nodes as shown in FIG. 5C, but the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. The relations between therecommendation information may be provided in various structures.

Based on the recommendation information and the relations between therecommendation information, when a user determine at least onerecommendation information, the tree generation module 235 may transmitthe determined recommendation information to the reply searcher module232. The reply searcher module 232 may determine the receivedrecommendation information as a response intention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the device 100 may include the context framework300.

The context framework 300 may obtain the context of the user at theparticular period of time. Examples of the context of the user mayinclude the time, day, date, schedule of the user, location of the user,activity of the user, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto.For example, the context framework 300 may obtain the scheduleinformation of the user at the particular period of time based on theschedule information of the user which is stored in the device 100. Thecontext framework 300 may obtain the location information of the user byusing a location sensor (e.g. GPS) provided in the device 100. Thecontext framework 300 may detect the activity of the user by using acamera, a position sensor or a motion sensor provided in the device 100.

The candidate reply generator module 230 may determine a recommendationanswer message based on the sender's intention of the received messageand the context of the user obtained through the context framework 300.

For example, the reply searcher module 232 may obtain the context of theuser from the context framework 300. The reply searcher module 232 maydetermine a recommendation answer message based on the sender'sintention and the obtained context of the user.

The corpus database 236 may store the sender's intention and a responseintention corresponding to the context. For example, as shown in FIG. 6,at least on answer intonation corresponding to the sender's intentionand the context may be stored.

TABLE 6 Type of the received message Sender's Sender's Message MessageThe presence Context intention intention type type of honorific Contact(lv1) (lv2) (lv1) (lv2) form Time Date registration Response intentionGreeting Night custom Good_night Honorific Evening Monday RegisteredHAVE_A_NICE_DINNER form Greeting Night custom Good_night Non- EveningFriday Registered HAVE_A_NICE_WEEDEND honorific form Greeting Nightcustom Good_night Non- Evening Tuesday Non- ASK_WHOHAVE_A_NICE_DINNERhonorific registered form Question Location Short Location HonorificNoon/ Wednesday Registered ANSWER_LOCATION_OFFICEAN- Answer formafternoon SWER_LOCATION_HOME Question Location Short Location Non- NightThursday Registered ANSWER_LOCATION_HOMEAN- Answer honorificSWER_LOCATION_OFFICE form

Accordingly, the reply searcher module 232 may obtain a responseintention corresponding to the sender's intention and the context.

For example, in response to receiving a message “good evening” at night,the reply searcher module 232 may determine whether the time when themessage was received, the day when the message was received, and thecontact information of the sender are stored in the device 100. Thereply searcher module 232 may determine that the intention of themessage “good evening” as a greeting at night, the time when the messagewas received as evening, the day when the message was received asWednesday, and the contact information of the sender as being stored inthe device 100. Accordingly, the reply searcher module 232 may obtain aresponse intention to have a nice dinner (HAVE_A_NICE_DINNER) from thecorpus database 236 corresponding to the case where the intention of thesender is a greeting at night, the context is Wednesday evening, and thecontact information of the sender is stored in the device 100.

Accordingly, the device 100 may provide a different recommendationanswer message depending on the context of the user although the samemessage is received.

The corpus database 236 may store a different recommendation answermessage depending on whether the horrific form is used and whether thecontact information of the sender is stored in the device 100 inaddition to the sender's intention and the context of the user.

The reply searcher module 232 may determine a relationship between thesender and the user based on the presence of the telephone number of thesender in the device 100 and the name corresponding to the telephonenumber of the sender. For example, when the name corresponding to thetelephone number stored in the device 100 is “mommy” or “mom”, the replysearcher module 232 may determine that the sender is the user's mother.The reply searcher module 232 may determine the relationship between thesender and the user based on the contact information group including thetelephone number of the sender. The examples of the contact informationgroup may include family, company, school, social club, and the like.

The reply searcher module 232 may determine whether to use the horrificform in the answer message based on the relationship between the senderand the user. Accordingly, the reply searcher module 232 may determine arecommendation answer message based on the relationship between thesender and the user in addition to the sender's intention and thecontext of the user.

For example, the device 100 may receive a message “what are you doing?’at 9:30 am, on March 30, 2015 from the user's mother. In response to themessage, the device 100 may determine one of the messages “why?”, “I amworking”, “I am busy right now”, “what happened?” and “I don't know” inthe honorific form as a recommendation answer message.

In response to receiving the same message at the same time from a guy atthe blind date, the reply searcher module 232 may determine one of themessages “why?”, “I am working”, “I am busy right now”, “what happened?”and “I don't know”, as a recommendation answer message.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are views illustrating recommendation information for ananswer message according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 6A, the device 100 may be a wearable watch. Thecommunicator 130 may receive a message “where shall we meet?”. Inresponse to the received message, the user input unit 145 may receive auser input that selects an ok button 601.

In response to receiving a user input, as shown in FIG. (b-1) or (b-2)of FIG. 6A, the processor 170 may display the display 110 to display aplurality of user interfaces 602, 603 and 604 for determining an answermessage.

According to an embodiment, as shown in (b-1) of FIG. 6A, the processor170 may divide a screen area into a central area and outer areas andcontrol the display 110 to display the received message on the centralarea and the plurality of user interfaces 602, 603 and 604 on the outerareas.

The processor 170 may control the display 110 to display the userinterface 602 “well” as a recommendation answer message for the receivedmessage.

When the sender's intention of the message is to ask about a place, theprocessor 170 may control the display 110 to display the user interface603 for the user to select a place.

The processor 170 may control the display 110 to display the userinterface 604 to show the recommendation information.

A whirl may be provided in a bezel area of the device 100. The processor170 may control the display 110 to display the user interface selectedby the user to be differentiated from the interface of another user. Forexample, the processor 170 may control the display 110 so that theselected user interface has a different color or pattern from anotherarea.

In response to a user input that rolls the whirl of the device 100, theprocessor 170 may sequentially select the user interfaces 602,603 and604 in a direction of rolling the whirl. In response to receiving a userinput that rolls the whirl at a predetermined angle or more, theprocessor 170 may control the display 110 to remove the displayed userinterface and display a new user interface.

According to another embodiment, as shown in (b-2) of FIG. 6A, theprocessor 170 may display the display 110 so that a screen is dividedinto a plurality of areas by lines or colors, the received message isdisplayed on the top area of the plurality of areas, and the pluralityof interfaces 602,603 and 604 are displayed on the bottom area.

In response to receiving a user input that rolls the whirl, theprocessor 170 may sequentially select the user interfaces 602,603 and604 in the direction of rolling the whirl. In response to a user inputthat rolls a whirl at a predetermined angle or more, the processor 170may control the display to remove the displayed user interface and todisplay a new user interface while being scrolled.

In (b-1) or (b-2) of FIG. 6A, the user input unit 145 may receive a userinput that selects the user interface 604 for showing the recommendationinformation.

As shown in (b-1) or (b-2) of FIG. 6A, according to the user input thatselects the user interface 604 for showing recommendation information,as shown in (c) of FIG. 6B, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display graphics representing recommendation information andrelations between the recommendation information. In this case, therecommendation information may be indicated by the nodes, and therelations between the recommendation information may be indicated byarrows connecting the nodes. Specifically, when a sending message is“where shall we meet?”, the processor 170 may generate recommendationinformation based on the sender's intention of the sending message. Therecommendation information may be linked in the order of “sender”,“date”, “hot place”, “ever been”, “Hongdae area”, “chicken” and “coldnoodle”. The user may select one of recommendation information from theplurality of pieces of recommendation information. In (c) of FIG. 6, theuser input unit 145 may receive a user input that selects “chicken 611”.

Receiving a user input, as shown in (d) of FIG. 6B, the processor 170may generate an answer message including recommendation information andcontrol the display 110 to display the generated answer message. Forexample, the processor 170 may generate a sending message “Do you wantto eat chicken?” using recommendation information “chicken”. Theprocessor 170 may generate an answer message using not only therecommendation information selected by the user but also otherrecommendation information linked to the recommendation information. Forexample, various types of answer messages having a response intentioncorresponding to the sender's intention may be generated by theoperation of each module of the engine 200 of FIG. 3.

Although not shown, various types of answer messages using therecommendation information may be generated and displayed. In responseto a user input that selects one of a plurality of answer messages, theprocessor 170 may determine the selected answer message as a message tobe transmitted to the sender.

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating recommendation information for an answermessage according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

In (b-1) or (b-2) of FIG. 6A, in response to a user input that selectsthe user interface 604 for showing the recommendation information, asshown in (a) of FIG. 7, the processor 170 may control the display 110 todisplay graphics representing recommendation information and relationsbetween the recommendation information. The user input unit 145 mayreceive a user input that selects plural recommend information “foodtalk 711” and “chicken 611”. The user input that selects the pluralityof pieces of recommendation information may be made sequentially,simultaneously or within a predetermined time (e.g. within a one second)using multi-touch gesture, etc.

As shown in (b) of FIG. 7, according to a user input, the processor 170may generate an answer message including the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information and control the display 110 to display thegenerated answer message. For example, the processor 170 may generate ananswer message “shall we go to the chicken restaurant on the food talk?”based on the recommendation information “chicken 611” and “food talk711”. The processor 170 may generate an answer message by using not onlythe recommendation information selected by the user but also otherrecommendation information linked to the recommendation information. Forexample, various types of the answer messages having a responseintention corresponding to the sender's intention may be generated bythe operation of each module of the engine 200 of FIG. 3.

Although not shown, various types of answer messages using the pluralityof pieces of recommendation information may be generated and displayed.According to the user input that selects one of the plurality of answermessages, the processor 170 may determine the selected answer message asa message to be transmitted to the sender.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are views illustrating recommendation information for ananswer message according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

As shown in (b-1) or (b-2) of FIG. 6A, in response to a user input thatselects the user interface 604 for showing the recommendationinformation, as shown in (a) of FIG. 8A, the processor 170 may controlthe display 110 to display graphics representing recommendationinformation and relations between the recommendation information. Theuser input unit 145 may receive a user input that selects “date 801”.The user input may be for different recommendation information connectedto the “date 801”. Accordingly, a user input that determines the “date801” as the recommendation information and a user input that representsother recommendation information connected to the “date 801” may bedifferent from each other. For example, a user input that determines the“date 801” as recommendation information may be a tab gesture, and auser input that represents other recommendation information connected tothe “date 801” may be a touch and hold gesture.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 8A, according to a user input, the processor170 may control the display 110 to display first recommendationinformation connected to the “date 801” and relations between the firstrecommendation information on the basis of the “date 801”. In responsethat there are other pieces of recommendation information on the basisof the “date 801”, the processor 170 may control the display 110 todisplay a user interface 811 for showing another recommendationinformation. The processor 170 may receive a user input that selects theuser interface 811.

Referring to (c) of FIG. 8B, according to a user input, the processor170 may control the display 110 to display graphics representing secondrecommendation information connected to the “date 801” and relationsbetween the second recommendation information on the basis of the “date801”. The user input unit 145 may receive a user input that selects“bicycle 821” as one of the second recommendation information.

According to a user input, the processor 170 may generate an answermessage including the “bicycle 821” and control the display 110 todisplay the generated answer message.

Referring to (c) of FIG. 8B, according to a user input that selects auser interface 812, the processor 170 may control the display 110 todisplay graphics representing other recommendation information andrelations between the other recommendation information on the basis ofthe “date 801”. When other recommendation information based on “date801” is not longer present, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display the screen that reverts to the screen of (b) of FIG. 8A.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are views illustrating relations between recommendationinformation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The recommendation information and the relations between therecommendation information may be displayed in various forms. Forexample, the recommendation information and the relations between therecommendation information may be displayed in the form of a treestructure including nodes and arrows as described above. Alternatively,as shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, other recommendation information linked toone recommendation information may be displayed in a radial form aroundthe center of the one recommendation information. The relations betweenthe recommendation information may be indicated by arrows or lines asshown in (a) of FIG. 9A, or alternatively, the relations betweenrecommendation information may be displayed by positions where thepieces of recommendation information are displayed without arrows orlines. For example, in (b) of FIG. 9AB, the plural pieces ofrecommendation information adjacent to one piece of the recommendationinformation may be regarded to be relevant to the one piece ofrecommendation information.

Alternatively, recommendation information and the relations between therecommendation information may be defined with reference to thepositions of the divided areas as shown in (c) of FIG. 9. For example,when the screen is divided into a plurality of areas, the information atthe center of the screen may become a reference information as beingtoward the central area of the screen, and a recommendation informationhaving relations with a plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation may be displayed. Other recommendation information branchedfrom the recommendation information at the center of the screen may bedisplayed as being toward the outer area of the screen.

FIGS. 10A to 10C are flowcharts provided to explain a method forproviding a recommendation answer message by using a communicationdevice and a wearable device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

A communication device 100A and a wearable device 100B may include atleast one element of the engine 200 of FIG. 2. For example, the elementsof the engine 200 of FIG. 2 may belong to either the communicationdevice 100A or the wearable device 100B. The wearable device 100B may bedisposed outside the communication device 100A and refer to the device100 attached to part of the body of the user. The wearable device 100Bmay perform long-distance wireless communication in addition toshort-distance wireless communication. The communication device 100A andthe wearable device 100B may be connected via short-distance wirelesscommunication. For example, the communication device 100A and thewearable device 100B may be paired via Bluetooth. Accordingly, when thewearable device 100B and the communication device 100A are locatedwithin a reference distance, the communication device 100A and thewearable device 100B may be automatically connected via short-distancewireless communication.

According to an embodiment, at step S1001 of FIG. 10A, the communicationdevice 100A may receive a message.

As step S1003, the communication device 100A may determine a sender'sintention of the received message or a message type, and based on thedetermined sender's intention or the message type, determine at leastone recommendation answer message. The communication device 100A maystore the elements shown in FIG. 2.

At step S1005, the communication device 100A may transmit at least onedetermined recommendation answer message to the wearable device 100B.

At step S1007, the wearable device 100B may display the receivedrecommendation answer message. The wearable device 100B may display auser interface for showing recommendation information necessary forgenerating an answer message.

At step S1009, in response to the user interface for showing therecommendation information being selected by a user, the wearable device100B may transmit information indicating that the user interface forshowing the recommendation information is selected to the communicationdevice 100A.

At step S1011, the communication device 100A may determine a pluralityof piece of recommendation information and relations between theplurality of piece of recommendation information.

At step S1013, the communication device 100A may transmit informationindicating the plurality of piece of recommendation information and therelations between the plurality of piece of recommendation informationto the wearable device 100B.

At step S1015, the wearable device 100B may display graphicsrepresenting the plurality of piece of recommendation information andthe relations between the plurality of piece of recommendationinformation.

As step S1017, in response to one of the plurality of piece ofrecommendation information being selected by the user, the wearabledevice 100B may transmit the selected recommendation information to thecommunication device 100A.

At step S1019, the communication device 100A may generate an answermessage including recommendation information based on the selectedrecommendation information, the sender's intention and the message type.

At step S1021, the communication device 100A may transmit the generatedanswer message to the sender. The communication device 100A may transmitthe generated answer message to the wearable device 100B, and upon userconfirmation, transmit the generated answer message to the sender.

According to another embodiment, at step S1031 of FIG. 10B, the wearabledevice 100B may receive a message.

At step S1033, the wearable device 100B may transmit the receivedmessage to the communication device 100A.

At step S1035, the communication device 100A may determine at least onerecommendation answer message based on the sender's intention or themessage type.

At step S1037, the communication device 100A may transmit at least onedetermined recommendation answer message to the wearable device 100B.

At step S1039, the wearable device 100B may display the receivedrecommendation answer message. The wearable device 100B may display auser interface for showing recommendation information necessary forgenerating an answer message.

At step S1041, in response to the user interface for showing therecommendation information being selected by the user, the wearabledevice 100B may transmit the information indicating that the userinterface for showing the recommendation information is selected to thecommunication device 100A.

At step S1043, the communication device 100A may determine the pluralityof piece of recommendation information and relations between theplurality of piece of recommendation information.

At step S1045, the communication device 100A may display graphicsrepresenting the plurality of piece of recommendation information andthe relations between the plurality of piece of recommendationinformation.

At step S1047, in response to one of the plurality of piece ofrecommendation information being selected by the user, the communicationdevice 100A may generate an answer message including recommendationinformation based on the selected recommendation information, thesender's intention, and the message type.

At step S1049, the communication device 100A may transmit the generatedanswer message to the wearable device 100B.

At step S1051, the wearable device 100B may transmit the received answermessage to the sender.

According to another embodiment, as step S1061 of FIG. 10C, the wearabledevice 100B may receive a message.

At step S1063, the wearable device 100B may determine at least onerecommendation answer message based on the sender's intention or themessage type.

At step S1065, the wearable device 100B may display the receivedrecommendation answer message. The wearable device 100B may display auser interface for showing the recommendation information for generatingan answer message.

At step S1067, in response to the user interface for showing therecommendation information being selected by the user, the wearabledevice 100B may transmit the information indicating that the userinterface for showing the recommendation information is selected to thecommunication device 100A.

At steps S1069 to S1077, the wearable device 100B may transmit theanswer message generated based on the plurality of piece ofrecommendation information selected by the user to the sender. StepsS1069 to S1077 correspond to steps S1043 to S1051 of FIG. 10B,respectively. Therefore, the detailed description will be omitted.

FIGS. 11A and 11B are views illustrating a process of determining datato be used for generating an answer message according to an embodimentof the present disclosure.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 11A, in response to a user input switching adata registration mode to an on-state through a data registration modeuser interface 1101 on a setup screen, the processor 170 may execute adata registration mode.

Accordingly, when a content is provided or displayed as an example ofdata, the processor 170, as shown in (b) of FIG. 11A, may control thedisplay 110 to display a data registration menu 1102 for registering thecontent as data to be used for generating an answer message. The contentmay include various types of information such as video, image, text,audio or webpage.

The user input unit 145 may receive a user input for selecting the dataregistration menu 1102 to register the content being provided as data tobe used for generating an answer message.

According to a user input, as shown in (c) of FIG. 11, the processor 170may control the display 110 to display a pop-up screen 1103 confirmingthat the content being provided is registered as data to be used forgenerating an answer message. The pop-up screen 1103 may include a taginput screen 1103-1 and an importance selection user interface 1103-2.According to a user input provided through the tag input screen 1103-1,the processor 170 may receive tag information of the content beingprovided. The tag information, for example, may be the description ofthe content, the availability of the content or the source of thecontent. According to a user input provided through the importanceselection user interface 1103-2, the processor 170 may receive theimportance of the content. The importance of the content may be one ofvery important, moderate important, and slightly important.

The processor 170 may generate recommendation information or an answermessage based on the metadata, tag information and importance of aregistered content and registered content as related information of theregistered content.

For example, the processor 170 may store the registered content and thecontent related information in a user registration data area of thecontext framework 300. In response to a recommendation answer message orrecommendation information to be used for the recommendation answermessage being generated, the processor 170 may preferentially use thecontent and the content related information stored in the userregistration data area.

As a recommendation answer message or recommendation information isgenerated using data directly registered by a user, satisfaction andconvenience of a user who uses a message function may be enhanced.

FIGS. 12A and 13B are concept views provided to explain a process ofproviding an answer message according to another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 12A, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display a content 1201 registered at a social server. Forexample, when a user accesses the social server and retrieve a contentregistered by a third person, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display the content 1201. The user input unit 145 may receive auser input for registering an answer message (e.g. comments, etc.) forthe content 1201 registered at the social server.

The processor 170 may generate keywords from the content 1201 registeredby the third party. As shown in (b) of FIG. 12A, the processor 170 maygenerate keywords such as “Hongdae area”, “outchicken” “chicken”, “chickand beer” “beer” “spicy chicken”, “foodstagram”, “instrafood”,“instasize”, and the like. Generating keywords from a content by theprocessor 170 may include obtaining keywords from the tags registered bythe third person or the metadata of the content in addition togenerating keywords by analyzing an image itself. The processor 170 mayobtain keywords related to an image by using a search engine of anexternal server. For example, when the image is a food image, theprocessor 170 may retrieve restaurants offering food images, latestissues related to the food images, target customer of the food imagesfrom the external server and obtain a keyword accordingly.

As shown in (C) of FIG. 12A, the processor 170 may determine keywords orprocessed or categorized keywords as recommendation information andcontrol the display 110 to display graphics representing the determinedrecommendation information and the relations between the recommendationinformation. The user input unit 145 may receive a user input thatselects at least one recommendation information 1202 among the pluralityof recommendation information.

According to a user input, as shown in (d) of FIG. 12B, the processor170 may generate candidate answer messages 1204 based on therecommendation information 1202 selected by the user and a template 1203available for an answer message. The processor 170 may determine atemplate according to an attribute of the recommendation information1202 selected by the user. For example, when the attribute of therecommendation information 1202 selected by the user is food, theprocessor 170 may select a template for generating an answer messageincluding the food image and generate an answer message based on thetemplate. For example, the processor 170 may generate an answer message“let's go eat chicken with me next time” by combing recommendationinformation “chicken” and a template “let's go eat #food with me nexttime”. When “chicken” and “beer” are selected as plural pieces ofrecommendation information, the processor 170 may generate an answermessage “the chicken and beer here are really great” by combining theplurality of pieces of recommendation information and a template “#foodhere is really great”.

In response to a plurality of candidate answer messages being generated,the processor 170 may control the display 110 to display a userinterface for a user to select one of the plurality of candidate answermessages. Accordingly, in response to one answer message being selectedby the user, the processor 170 may register one selected answer messageat a social server. For example, the processor 170 may register theselected answer message selected as a comment to the content registeredby the third person at the social server.

According to another embodiment, as shown in (a) of FIG. 13A, theprocessor 170 may control the display 110 to display a content 1301registered at the social server. The user input unit 145 may receive auser input for registering an answer message for the content 1301registered at the social server.

As shown in (b) of FIG. 13A, the processor 170 may generate keywordssuch as “Hongdae area”, “outchicken”, “foodstagram”, “chicken”,“smartphone”, “cheesestick”, “sweetphotatostick”, “daily life”,“foodtrip”, etc.

As shown in (c) of FIG. 13A, the processor 170 may determinerecommendation information based on the generated keywords and controlthe display 110 to display graphics representing the determinedrecommendation information and the relations between the recommendationinformation. The user input unit 145 may receive a user input forselecting a recommendation information 1302 from the recommendationinformation.

According to a user input, as shown in (d) of FIG. 13B, the processor170 may generate candidate answer messages 1304 based on therecommendation information 1302 selected by the user and a template 1303available for an answer message. The processor 170 may determine atemplate according to an attribute of the recommendation information1302 selected by the user. For example, when the attribute of theselected recommendation information is an activity, the processor 170may select a template for generating an answer message including theactivity and generate an answer message based on the template. Forexample, the processor 170 may generate an answer message “let's go graba bite with me” by combining recommendation information “go grab a bite”with a template “let's #activity with me”. When the plurality ofrecommendation information are selected and attributes of respectiverecommendation information are different, the processor 170 may select atemplate for generating an answer message by using the plurality ofrecommendation information with different attributes. For example, when“chicken” and “Hongdae area” are selected as the plurality ofrecommendation information with different attributes, the processor 170may generate an answer message “let's go to the Hongdae area to eatchicken for a change” by combining the plurality of recommendationinformation with a template “let's go to #place to eat #food for achange”.

FIGS. 14A to 15D are views illustrating screens for providing images asrecommendation information according to another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

When the device 100 provides an image or a video, the image or video maybe used for recommendation information to be included in an answermessage. The device 100 may understand a dialog intention of a sender ora user based on message history between the sender and the user andautomatically provide an image or a video to be included in an answermessage based on the dialog intention. As an image or a video which isto be included in an answer message is provided, a user may create ananswer message more conveniently.

According to an embodiment, referring to (a) of FIG. 14A, in response toreceiving a message from a device of a sender, the processor 170 maycontrol the display 110 to display a message between the sender and useron a screen. For example,

the processor 170 may control the display 110 to display messages “whatdid you with your girlfriend over the weekend?” received from the deviceof the sender, “we went to the Olympic park” input by the user as aresponse, and “how was it?” received from the device of the sender as aresponse. The processor 170 may control the display 110 to display auser interface 1401 for providing recommendation information to beincluded in an answer message.

According to a user input that selects the user interface 1401, as shownin (b) of FIG. 14A, the processor 170 may control the display 110 todisplay representative images 1402,1403,1404 and 1405 as recommendationinformation.

The processor 170 may obtain at least one keyword from the messagesbetween the sender and user and determine images to be recommended basedon the obtained keyword. For example, as shown in (b) of FIG. 14A, theprocessor 170 may obtain keywords “girlfriend” and “weekend” from themessage “what did you do with your girlfriend over the weekend?' fromthe sender and obtain a keyword “Olympic park” from the message “we wentto the Olympic park” of the user. The processor 170 may generate asearch keyword to retrieve an image to be recommended based on thecombination of the obtained keywords. For example, the processor 170 maydefine images retrieved by using the keywords “girlfriend”, “weekend”and “Olympic park” as a first image group. The processor 170 may defineimages retrieved based on the keywords “girlfriend” and “Olympic park”as a second image group. The processor 170 may define images retrievedbased on the keywords “girlfriend” and “weekend” as a third image group.As shown in (b) of FIG. 12A, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display the representative images 1402 to 1405 of respectiveimage groups. The user input unit 145 may receive a user input thatselects the representative image 1402 among the representative images1402 to 1405.

According to a user input, the processor 170 may obtain therepresentative image 1402 and other images included in the group of therepresentative image 1402 and control the display 110 to display theobtained images as in (d) of FIG. 14B. As shown in (c) of FIG. 14B, theprocessor 170 may control the display 110 to display a visual effect inwhich images included in the group of the representative image 1402 areretrieved or collected around the representative image 1402.

As shown in (d) of FIG. 14B, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display the retrieved images to be arranged (according to theorder of relevance with keywords, the order of image generation time,the order of image size) in one area 1411 of the screen (e.g. a topscreen). The processor 170 may control the display 110 to display theimages which are not included in the representative image group to bearranged (e.g. the order of image generation time, the order of imagesize, etc.) in another area (e.g. a bottom screen) 1412.

As shown in (e) of FIG. 14C, the user input unit 145 may receive a userinput that selects at least one of first, second, third and fourthimages 1421,1422,1423 and 1424 to be used for an answer message amongthe retrieved images. In response to the user input, the processor 170may control the display 110 to display the first to fourth images 1421to 1424 selected by the user so that the first to fourth images 1421 to1424 selected by the user are highlighted to be distinguished from theother images.

As shown in (f) of FIG. 14C, the processor 170 may obtain keywords fromthe first to fourth images 1421 to 1424 selected by the user. Forexample, the processor 170 may generate keywords by analyzing the firstto fourth images 1421 to 1424 selected by the user. The processor 170may generate keywords by analyzing the first to fourth images 1421 to1424 selected by the user using a Natural Language Generation (NLG)function.

The processor 170 may obtain keywords from metadata, tag, user log ofthe first to fourth images 1421 to 1424 selected by the user. Forexample, the processor 170 may obtain a place keyword “Olympic park”from the first image 1421, a date keyword “Aug. 10, 2015” from thesecond image 1422, and a person keyword “girlfriend’ from the thirdimage 1423.

As shown in (g) of FIG. 14C, the processor 170 may determine a templateavailable for an answer message from a plurality of templates based onthe obtained keywords. For example, when attributes of the keywordscorresponding to the selected image relate to place and person, theprocessor 170 may determine a template 1431 including place and personas a template for generating an answer message.

As shown in (h) of FIG. 14D, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display an answer message including a text-based answer messagecontaining a keyword according to the determined template and images1441 and 1442 related to the generated keyword. The images 1441 and 1442related to the obtained keyword may be images selected by the user in(e) of FIG. 14C, or representative images of the images retrieved againrelated to the keyword obtained in (f) of FIG. 14C.

As shown in (h) of FIG. 14D, when an answer message includes the images1441 and 1442 of “Olympic park” and “girlfriend”, the user input unit145 may receive user a input that selects the image 1442 of “girlfriend”between the images 1441 and 1442.

According to a user input, as shown in (i) of FIG. 14D, the processor170 may control the display 110 to display other images related to theimage 1442 selected by the user. The other images may be imagesretrieved again by using the keyword related to the image 1442 selectedby the user, and when the image 1442 selected by the user is arepresentative image, may be images included in the group of therepresentative image. The other images related to the image 1442selected by the user may be images by newly retrieved using the newlyobtained keyword from the image 1442 selected by the user. Such imagesmay be provided in the form of thumbnail, image list, or album to slideover time. Alternatively, only the specific number of images may bedisplayed, and the other images may be sequentially displayed accordingto a user input of selecting left/right buttons or up/down buttons.

According to another embodiment, referring to (a) of FIG. 15A, inresponse to receiving a message from a device of a sender, the processor170 may control the display 110 to display a message between the senderand the user on a screen. For example, the processor 170 may control thedisplay 110 to display a message “what do you want to eat?” receivedfrom the device of the sender. The processor 170 may control the display110 to display a user interface 1501 for selecting recommendationinformation to be included in an answer message input by the user.

According to a user input that selects the user interface 1501, as shownin (b) of FIG. 15A, the processor 170 may control the display 110 todisplay representative images 1501,1502,1503 and 1504 as recommendationinformation. The processor 170 may obtain at least one keyword from themessages between the sender and the user and determine images to berecommended based on the obtained keyword. For example, the processor170 may obtain keywords “what”, “eat” and “want to” from the message“what do you want to eat?” from the sender in (b) of FIG. 15A. Theprocessor 170 may generate a search keyword for retrieving images to berecommended based on the combination of the obtained keywords. Forexample, the processor 170 may determine that the sender intends to askabout food and generate new keywords related to food based on dialoghistory between the sender and the user, search history of the user andimages stored in the device 100. The combination of newly generatedkeywords may be, for example, “roll cake”, “soju”, “beef”, “chicken”,and “beer”. The processor 170 may retrieve and group images related tothe combination of keywords obtained from the images which are stored inthe device 100 or a server linked to the device 100. As shown in (b) ofFIG. 15A, the processor 170 may control the display 110 to displayrepresentative images 1502, 1503, 1504, and 1505 of respective imagegroups. The user input unit 145 may receive a user input for selectingthe representative image 1502 from the plurality of representativeimages 1502 to 1505.

According to a user input, the processor 170 may obtain therepresentative image 1502 selected by the user and other images includedin the group of the representative image 1502 selected by the user andcontrol the display 110 to display the obtained images. Referring to (c)of FIG. 15B, the processor 170 may control the display 110 to display avisual effect where images included in the group of the representativeimage 1502 are retrieved or collected around the representative image1502. As shown in (d) of FIG. 15B, the processor 170 may control thedisplay 110 to display the retrieved images to be arranged and displayedin one area (e.g. a top screen) 1511 of the screen. In addition, theprocessor 170 may control the display 110 to display images which arenot included in the group of the representative image to be arranged andisplayed in another area (e.g. a bottom screen) 1512 of the screen.

As shown in (e) of FIG. 15C, the user input unit 145 may receive a userinput for selecting at least one of first, second, third and fourthimages 1521, 1522, 1523 and 1524 to be used for an answer message amongthe retrieved images. In response to a user input, the processor 170 maycontrol the display 110 to display the first to fourth images 1521 to1524 selected by the user so that the first to fourth images 1521 to1524 selected by the user are highlighted to be distinguished from theother images.

As shown in (f) of FIG. 15C, the processor 170 may obtain keywords fromthe first to fourth images 1521 to 1524 selected by the user. Forexample, the processor 170 may analyze the first to fourth images 1521to 1524 selected by the user to generate keywords. The processor 170 mayobtain keywords from metadata, tag, and user log of the first to fourthimages 1521 to 1524 selected by the user. For example, the processor 170may obtain a food keyword “chicken” from the first image 1521, thesecond image 1522 and the third image 1523 and obtain a keyword “draftbeer” from the fourth image 1524.

As shown in (g) of FIG. 15C, the processor 170 may determine a templateavailable for an answer message from a plurality of templates based onthe obtained keyword. For example, when the attribute of keywordscorresponding to the selected image is food, the processor 170 maydetermine a template 1531 including a plurality of food images as atemplate for generating an answer message.

As shown in (h) of FIG. 15D, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display a text-based answer message including a keyword accordingto the determined template and images 1551 and 1552 related to thegenerated keyword. The images 1551 and 1552 related to the obtainedkeyword may be the images selected by the user in (e) of FIG. 15C, ormay be representative images retrieved again in relation to the obtainedkeyword in (f) of FIG. 15C.

As to (h) of FIG. 15D, when the answer message includes the images 1551and 1552 of “chicken” and “draft beer”, the user input unit 145 mayreceive a user input for selecting the image 1552 of “chicken” as one ofthe images.

According to a user input, as shown in (i) of FIG. 15D, the processor170 may control the display 110 to display other images related to theimage 1552 of “chicken” selected by the user. The other images may beimages retrieved again using the keyword related to the image 1552selected by the user or, when the image 1552 selected by the user is arepresentative image, the other images may be images included in thegroup of the representative image. The other images may be images newlyretrieved by using the newly obtained keyword from the image 1552selected by the user. The other images may be provided in the form of athumbnail image, an image list, or an album to slide over time.Alternatively, only the certain number of images may be displayed, andthe other images may be sequentially displayed according to a user inputthat selects left/right buttons or up/down buttons.

FIGS. 16A, 16B, and 16C are views illustrating screens for providing ananswer message to a plurality of devices according to another embodimentof the present disclosure.

When a user receives and transmits a message from and to a plurality ofsenders through a plurality of dialog windows, it is inconvenient foruser to frequently come in and out of the dialog window. Accordingly, atechnique for receiving and transmitting a message from and to a seconduser without changing a dialog window while receiving and transmitting amessage from and to a first sender in high demand to reduceinconvenience of the user.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 16A, the processor 170 may control the display110 to display a first question message 1601 received from a firstdevice of a first sender and a first answer message 1602 of a user onthe dialog window.

As shown in (b) of FIG. 16A, in response to receiving a second questionmessage 1611 from a second device of a second sender, the processor 170may control the display 110 to display at least part of the secondquestion message 1611 on a screen.

The user input unit 145 may receive a user input that inputs taginformation 1621 through an input filed of the dialog window. Inresponse to a user input that inputs the tag information 1621, as shownin (c) of FIG. 16B, the processor 170 may control the display 110 todisplay the tag information 1621 on the input field of the dialog windowand automatically display identification information 1622 of the seconddevice. The identification information 1622 of the second device may beobtained from additional information or header information which istransmitted along with the second question message 1611. The examples ofthe identification information 1622 of the second device may include ID,phone number, or nickname of the second sender.

In response to the tag information 1621 and the identificationinformation 1622 of the second device being displayed, the user inputunit 145 may receive a user input that inputs a second answer message1623 for the second question message 1601. According to a user inputthat inputs the second answer message 1623, as shown in (d) of FIG. 16B,the processor 170 may control the display 110 to display the taginformation 1621, the identification information 1622 of the seconddevice and the second answer message 1623 on the input field of thedialog window.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 16A, the user input unit 145 may directlyreceive the tag information 1621, the identification information 1622 ofthe second device and the second question message 1623 through the inputfield of the dialog window. As shown in (d) of FIG. 16B, the processor170 may control the display 110 to display the tag information 1621, theidentification information 1622 of the second device and the secondanswer message 1623 on the input field of the dialog window.

According to a user input that selects a send button 1624, the processor170 may control the communicator 130 so that the second question message1623 may be transmitted to the second device. As shown in (e) of FIG.16C, the processor 170 may control the display 110 to display the secondanswer message 1623 transmitted to the second device on the dialogwindow. For example, the processor 170 may control the display 110 tomake an area of the dialog window to be divided into areas 1631 and 1632by colors or lines, an answer message transmitted to the second devicemay be displayed on the area 16331 and an answer message transmitted tothe first device may be displayed on the area 1632. According to anotherembodiment, the processor 170 may control the display 110 to display theanswer message transmitted to the second device at a state bar of thescreen or at an outside of the dialog window.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating configuration of a deviceaccording to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 17, examples of the device 100 may include a mobilephone, a tablet PC, a PDA, an MP3 player, a kiosk, an electronic frame,a navigation device, a digital TV, a smart watch, a wrist watch, and awearable device such as a smart glass, a Head-Mounted Display (HMD),etc.

Referring to FIG. 17, the device 100 may include at least one of adisplay 110, a processor 170, a memory 120, a GPS chip 125, acommunicator 130, a video processor 135, an audio processor 140, a userinput unit 145, a microphone unit 150, a capturer 155, a speaker 160 anda motion detector 165.

The display 110 may include a display panel 111 and a controller (notshown) for controlling the display panel 111. The display panel 111 maybe embodied with various types of displays such as a Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD), an Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) display, anActive-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AM-OLED), a Plasma DisplayPanel, etc. The display panel 111 may be flexible, transparent orwearable. The display 110 may be connected to a touch panel 147 of theuser input unit 145 and provided as a touch screen (not shown). Forexample, the touch screen (not shown) may include a unitary module inwhich the display panel 111 and the touch panel 147 are stacked.

The memory 120 may include at least one of an internal memory (notshown) and an external memory (not shown).

The internal memory may include at least one of a volatile memory (e.g.a Dynamic RAM) (DRAM), a Static RAM (SRAM), a Synchronous Dynamic RAM(SDRAM)), a non-volatile memory (e.g. One Time Programmable ROM(OTPROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable and Programmable ROM(EPROM), Electrically Erasable and Programmable ROM (EEPROM), Mask ROM,Flash ROM, etc.), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), or a Solid State Drive (SSD).According to an embodiment, the processor 170 may load and processinstructions or data received from at least one of the non-volatilememory or other components into the volatile memory. In addition, theprocessor 170 may retain data received or generated from othercomponents in the non-volatile memory.

The external memory may include at least one of Compact Flash (CF),Secure Digital (SD), Micro Secure Digital (Micro-SD), a Mini SecureDigital (Mini-SD), extreme Digital (xD), and Memory Stick.

The memory 120 may store various programs and data for operations of thedevice 100.

The processor 170 may control the display 110 to display graphicsrepresenting a plurality of piece of recommendation information whichare includable in an answer message for the received message andrelations between the plurality of piece of recommendation informationon the display 110. The processor 170 may display part of the contentsstored in the memory 120 on the display 110. The processor 170 mayperform a control operation corresponding to a user input in response toa user input being received in one area.

The processor 170 may include at least one of a RAM 171, a ROM 172, aCPU 173, a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) 174 and a bus 175. The RAM 171,the ROM 172, the CPU 173, and the GPU 174 may be interconnected via thebus 175.

The CPU 173 may access the memory 120 and perform booting by using anoperation system (O/S) stored in the memory 120. The CPU 173 may performvarious operations by using various programs, contents, data stored inthe memory 120.

The ROM 172 may store a command set for booting a system. For example,when a turn-on command is input and power is supplied to the device 100,the CPU 173 may copy the operation system stored in the memory 120 tothe RAM 171 according to the command stored the ROM 172 and performbooting of the system by executing the operation system. When thebooting is completed, the CPU 173 may copy various programs stored inthe memory 120 to the RAM 171, execute the program copied to the RAM 171and perform various operations. When the booting of the device 100 iscompleted, the GPU 174 may display a UI screen on an area of the display110. Specifically, the GPU 174 may generate a screen displaying anelectronic document including various objects such as contents, icons,menus, and the like. The GPU 174 may calculate attribute values such ascoordinate values, shapes, sizes, and colors of respective objectsaccording to the layout of the screen. The GPU 174 may then generate thescreens of various layouts including the objects based on the calculatedattribute values. The screens generated by the GPU 174 may be providedto the display 110 and displayed in respective areas of the display 110.

The GPS chip 125 may receive a GPS signal from a Global PositioningSystem (GPS) satellite and calculate the current position of the device100. The processor 170 may calculate a user location using the GPS chip125 when a navigation program is used or otherwise the current locationof the user is required.

The communicator 130 may perform communication with various types ofexternal devices according to various types of communication methods.The communicator 130 may include at least one of a Wi-Fi chip 131, aBluetooth chip 132, a wireless communication chip 133, and an NFC chip134. The processor 170 may communicate with various external devicesusing the communicator 130. The communicator 130 may receive a questionmessage from another device or may transmit an answer message for thereceived question message to another device.

The Wi-Fi chip 131 and the Bluetooth chip 132 may perform communicationusing a WiFi method and a Bluetooth method, respectively. When the WiFichip 131 or the Bluetooth chip 132 is used, various connectioninformation such as an SSID and a session key may be transmitted andreceived first, communication connection may be established, andcommunication information may be transmitted and received. The wirelesscommunication chip 133 may refer to a chip that performs communicationaccording to various communication standards such as IEEE, ZigBee, 3rdGeneration (3G), 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Long TermEvolution (LTE), and the like. The NFC chip 134 may refer to a chipoperating in an Near Field Communication (NFC) mode using 13.56 MHz bandamong various RF-ID frequency bands such as 135 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 433 MHz,860 to 960 MHz and 2.45 GHz.

The video processor 135 may process video data include in contentsreceived through the communicator 130 or contents stored in the memory120. The video processor 135 may perform various image processing suchas decoding, scaling, noise filtering, frame rate conversion, resolutionconversion, etc. of the video data.

The audio processor 140 may process audio data included in the contentsreceived through the communicator 130 or the contents stored in thememory 120. The audio processor 140 may perform various operations suchas decoding, amplification, or noise filtering of the audio data.

The processor 170 may reply contents by deriving the video processor 135and the audio processor 140 in response to a replay program formultimedia contents being executed. The speaker 160 may output audiodata generated by the audio processor 140.

The user input unit 145 may receive various commands from a user. Theuser input unit 145 may include at least one of a key 146, a touch panel147 and a pen recognition panel 148.

The key 146 may include various types of keys such as mechanicalbuttons, whirl, etc. formed in various areas such as the front surface,the side surface, or the rear surface of the device 100.

The touch panel 147 may sense a touch input of the user and output atouch event value corresponding to the sensed touch signal. When a touchscreen (not shown) is embodied with the touch panel 147 and the displaypanel 111, the touch screen may be embodied as various types of touchsensors such as a capacitive touch sensor, a resistive touch sensor, apiezoelectric touch sensor, etc. The capacitive touch sensor maycalculate touch coordinates by sensing micro electricity generated whenpart of the user's body touches the surface of the touch screen using adielectric coated on the surface of the touch screen. The resistivetouch sensor may include two electrode substrates provided in the touchscreen and calculate touch coordinates by sensing that the upper andlower substrates at the touched point contact to each other and acurrent flows when the user touches the screen. A touch event may occuron a touch screen when the touch screen is touched by a finger, but mayalso be generated by an object formed of a conductive material thatapplies a variation in capacitance.

The pen recognition panel 148 may detect a proximity input or a touchinput of a touch pen (e.g. a stylus pen, a digitizer pen, etc.) when theuser uses the pen and output the detected pen proximity event or thedetected pen touch event. The pen recognition panel 148 may beimplemented in an EMR manner and may detect a touch input or a proximityinput according to change of the intensity of an electromagnetic fielddue to the approach or touch of the pen. More specifically, the penrecognition panel 148 may include an electromagnetic induction coilsensor (not shown) having a grid structure and an electronic signalprocessor (not shown) for sequentially providing AC signals having apredetermined frequency to respective loop coils of the electromagneticinduction coil sensor. In response to a pen containing a resonantcircuit in the vicinity of the loop coil of the pen recognition panel148, a magnetic field transmitted from the loop coil may generate acurrent to the resonant circuit of the pen based on mutualelectromagnetic induction. Based on this current, an induction magneticfield may be generated from the coil that forms the resonance circuit inthe pen, and the pen recognition panel 148 may detect the inductionmagnetic field from the loop coil in a signal reception state, so thatthe proximity position or the touch position of the pen may be sensed.The pen recognition panel 148 may be provided under the display panel111 in a predetermined area, for example, an area that covers thedisplay area of the display panel 111.

The microphone unit 150 may receive user voice or other sounds andconvert the user voice or other sounds into audio data. The processor170 may use the user voice input through the microphone unit 150 in acall operation or convert the user voice into audio data and store theaudio data in the memory 120.

The capturer 155 may capture a still image or a video according to acontrol of the user. The capturer 155 may be embodied with a pluralityof cameras including a front camera and a rear camera.

When the capturer 155 and the microphone unit 150 are provided, theprocessor 170 may perform a control operation according to the uservoice input through the microphone unit 150 and user motion recognizedby the capturer 155. For example, the device 100 may operate in a motioncontrol mode or a voice control mode. When the device 100 operates inthe motion control mode, the processor 170 may activate the capturer 155and capture a user, trace the change of user motion and perform acontrol operation accordingly. When the device 100 operates in the voicecontrol mode, the processor 170 may analyze the user voice input throughthe microphone unit 150 and operate in the voice recognition mode forperforming a control operation according to the analyzed user voice.

The motion sensor 165 may sense motion of the main body of the device100. The device 100 may be rotated or tilted in various directions. Themotion sensor 165 may sense motion characteristics such as direction andangle of rotation, slope, etc. using at least one of various sensorssuch as a geomagnetism sensor, a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor,and the like.

Although not shown in FIG. 17, according to an embodiment, a USB port towhich a USB connector is connected to the device 100, various externalinput ports for connecting to various external terminals such asheadset, mouse, LAN, etc., a DMB chip for receiving and processing aDigital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signal, and various sensors may befurther provided.

FIG. 18 is a view illustrating a system for controlling an externaldevice by using recommendation information according to anotherembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 18, a system 1800 may include a device 100, anexternal device 1810 and a hub device 1820.

The external device 1810 may be, for example, an IoT device. The IoTdevice may be various kinds of home appliances. The home appliances mayinclude at least one of a washing machine 1811, a refrigerator 1812, anair conditioner 1813, a smart TV, a digital video disk (DVD) player, anaudio device, a vacuum cleaner, an oven, a microwave oven, an airconditioner, a set-top box, a home automation control panel, a securitycontrol panel, a TV box (e.g. HomeSync™ of Samsung, Apple TV™, or GoogleTV™), a game console (e.g. Xbox™ and PlayStation™), an electronicdictionary, an electronic key, a camcorder, or an electronic frame. Inaddition, the IoT device may be a sensor for detecting a state in thehome. The sensor may be embodied as various sensors such as a motionsensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, an illuminance sensor,and the like.

The hub device 1820 may be an additional device such as a home gateway,a home server, etc. and one of the IoT devices described above mayoperate as the hub device 1820.

When a user inputs a message for controlling the external device 1810 ona message screen provided by the device 100, the device 100 may obtain aplurality of piece of recommendation information corresponding to theinput message and relations between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information.

The tree generation module 235 may generate relation informationindicating the plurality of pieces of recommendation information and therelations between the plurality of pieces of recommendation information.The tree generation module 235 may be included in the device 100, theexternal device 1810, or the hub device 1820. The recommendationinformation and the relation information may be selected and generatedbased on the use history of the external device 1810 and the presetinformation.

According to an embodiment, when the tree generation module 235 isprovided in the hub device 1820, the hub device 1820 may receive themessage input by the user from the device 100. The hub device 1820 thatreceives the message may analyze the input message, selectrecommendation information having a higher weight value in connectionwith the external device 1810 and generate relation informationrepresenting the relations between the recommendation information. Thehub device 1820 may transmit the generated recommendation informationand relation information to the device 100.

According to another embodiment, when the tree generation module 325 isincluded in the external device 1810, the external device 1810 mayreceive the message input by the user via the hub device 1820 ordirectly receive the message. The external device 1810 may analyze thereceived message and generate recommendation information and therelation information between the recommendation information. Theexternal device 1810 may transmit the generated recommendationinformation and relation information to the device 100 via the hubdevice 1820 or directly transmit the information to the device 100.

In response to the device 100 obtaining relation information indicatingthe plurality of pieces of recommendation information and the relationsbetween the plurality of pieced of recommendation information, thedevice 100 may display graphics representing the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information and the relations between the plurality ofpieces of recommendation information.

A user may select one of the plurality of piece of recommendationinformation based on the graphics representing the plurality of piecesof recommendation information and the relations between the plurality ofpieces of recommendation information.

According to a user input, the device 100 may transmit a control commandrelated to the selected recommendation information to the externaldevice 1810 via the hub device 1820 or directly transmit the controlcommand to the external device 1810.

The external device 1810 may perform an operation according to thereceived control command.

FIG. 19 is an in-use view provided to explain a method for controllingan external device by using recommendation information according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to (a) of FIG. 19, a user may select identificationinformation 1911 of the external device 1810 to which a message istransmitted from a contact information list 1910 for the shake ofcontrol, and the identification information of the external device 1810may be, for example, identification information of a washing machine1811.

In response to the identification information of the external device1810 being selected, as shown in (b) of FIG. 19, the device 100 mayprovide a message screen 1920 for displaying a message related to theexternal device 1810 or receiving an input related to the externaldevice 1810.

In response to the message screen 1920 being provided, the user mayinput a message 1920 for asking about a state of the external device1810. For example, the user may input a message 1921 “please let me knowthe state of laundry”.

The device 100 may directly transmit a command asking a state of theexternal device 1810 to the external device 1810, or transmit thecommand to the external device 1810 via the hub device 1820 as a resultof analyzing the message 1921.

In response to the received command, the external device 1810 maydirectly transmit state information to the device 100, or transmit theinformation to the device 100 via the hub device 1820.

The state information of the external device 1810 may be, for example,at least one of an operation state of the external device 1810, a stateof an object to be processed by the external device 1810, and a state ofthe periphery of the external device 1810. For example, when theexternal device 1810 is the washing machine 1811, the state informationof the external device 1810 may be at least one of the amount oflaundry, the smell of the laundry, the amount of detergent and fabricsoftener put into the external device 1810. The above information may besensed using a camera, an odor sensor, a pressure sensor, etc. providedin the washing machine 1811.

When the state information of the external device 1810 is obtained inresponse to the message 1921 asking the state of the external device1810, the device 100 may convert the state information of the externaldevice 1810 into a message 1923 and display the message 1923 on themessage screen 1920. For example, the device 100 may display the message1923 of “the amount of laundry (1 kg), the laundry odor (strong), theamount of detergent (large) and the amount of fabric softener (small)”as the state of the laundry on the screen.

In response to the message 1923 related to the state information of theexternal device 1810 being displayed on the message screen 1920, a usermay input a message 1925 for controlling the external device 1810 basedon the state information of the external device 1810. For example, theuser may input the message 1925 “please start the washing machine”.

As shown in (c) of FIG. 19, the device 100 may analyze the message 1925and display graphics representing the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information and relations between the plurality of piecesof recommendation information. The graphic for connecting the pluralityof pieces of recommendation information may have a tree structure, anode structure, or hierarchy structure.

When the external device 1810 is a washing machine, the graphicsrepresenting the plurality of pieces of recommendation information andthe relations between the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation may indicate the type of laundry course, the type of washingtemperature, the number of times of rinsing and the relationstherebetween.

When the user selects a recommendation information 1931 “rinse once”from a plurality of pieces of recommendation information 1931, 1933 and1935 at the lowest nodes, the device 100 may generate a message “thecourse (standard), the washing temperature (40 degrees), the number ofrinsing times (once)” as a message including the recommendationinformation 1931 selected by the user and the recommendation informationat the upper nodes 1937, 1939 and 1941 related to the recommendationinformation 1931 selected by the user.

As shown in (d) of FIG. 19, the device 100 may display the message 1927on a message input window 1920-1.

According to a user input for selecting a send button 1920-2, the device100 may transmit the message 1927 displayed on the message input window1920-1 to the external device 1810 via the hub device 1820 or directlytransmit the message 1927 to the external device 1810. Transmitting themessage 1927 may comprise converting the message 1927 into a controlcommand interpreted by the external device 1810 and transmitting thecontrol command.

As another example, when a user selects the recommendation information1931 at the lowest node, the device 100 may transmit the message 1927including the recommendation information at the upper nodes 1937, 1939and 1941 related to the recommendation information 1931 at the lowestnode to the external device 1810 without displaying on the message inputwindow 1920-1. As a result of transmission, the message transmitted tothe external device 1810 may be displayed on the message screen 1920.

FIG. 20 is an in-use view provided to explain a method for controllingan external device by using recommendation information according to anembodiment of the present disclosure

As shown in (a) of FIG. 20, graphics representing a plurality of piecesof recommendation information and relations between the plurality ofpieces of recommendation information may be displayed. The example of(a) of FIG. 20 may be the same as an example of (c) of FIG. 19B.

In this case, a user wishes to change the recommendation information ofone node among the plurality of pieces of recommendation information andselect a recommendation information 2011 at a middle node that a userwants to change, among the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation.

In response to the recommendation information 2011 at the intermediatenode being selected, as shown in (b) of FIG. 20, the device 100 maydisplay graphics representing the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation and the relations between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information on the basis of the middle node.

When the user selects a recommendation information 2015 “rinse threetimes” as one of the plurality of pieces of recommendation information2013, 2015 and 2017 at the lowest node, the device 100 may generate amessage “the course (stains), the mode (soaking), the washingtemperature (60 degrees), the number of rinsing times (three times)” asa message including the selected recommendation information 2015 andrecommendation information related to the selected recommendationinformation 2015 at the upper nodes 2019, 2021 and 2011. As shown in (c)of FIG. 20, the device 100 may display the message 1923 on the messageinput window 1920-1.

According to a user input for selecting a send button 1920-2, the device100 may transmit the message 1923 displayed on the message input window1920-1 to the external device 1810 via the hub device 1820 or directlytransmit the message 1923 to the external device 1810.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for providingrecommendation information which is includable in an answer message by adevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

At step S2101, the device 100 may receive a question message fromanother device.

At step S2103, the device 100 may display graphic representing aplurality of pieces of recommendation information which are includablein an answer message for the received question message and relationsbetween the plurality of pieces of recommendation information. Thegraphic representing the relations between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information may have a tree structure or a radialstructure. The plurality of pieces of recommendation information may beconnected to one another based on weighted values regarding attributessuch as preference, importance, location, time or atmosphere of theplurality of pieces of recommendation information.

At step S2105, the device 100 may determine whether a user input thatselects at least one of the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation is received.

In response to the user input, at step S2107, the device 100 maygenerate and display an answer message including the selectedrecommendation information. According to the user input that selects asend button, the device 100 may transmit the answer message includingthe selected recommendation information to another device.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for providingrecommendation information which is includable in an answer message by adevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

At step S2210, the device 100 may store data a user registered. The datathat the user registered may be, for example, a content registered asdata to be used for generating an answer message through a dataregistration menu by a user. The data registered by the user may be dataretrieved, captured, or noted by the user.

At step S2203, the device 100 may receive a question message fromanother device.

At step S2205, the device 100 may display graphics representing aplurality of pieces of recommendation information included in an answermessage and relations between the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation based on the data registered by the user.

At step S2207, the device 100 may determine whether a user input thatselects at least one of the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation is received.

In response to the user input being received, at step S2209, the device100 may generate and display an answer message including the selectedrecommendation information. According to the user input that selects asend button, the device 100 may transmit an answer message including theselected recommendation information to another device.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for providingrecommendation information which is includable in an answer message by adevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

At step S2301, the device 100 may receive a question message fromanother device.

At step S2303, the device 100 may display a plurality of pieces ofrecommendation images included in the answer message for the receivedquestion message.

At step S2305, the device 100 may determine whether a user input thatselects at least one of the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation is received.

In response to the user input being received, at step S2307, the device100 may obtain a keyword from the selected recommendation image, andgenerate and display an answer message including the obtained keyword.The device 100 may generate and display an answer message including theselected recommendation image. According to the user input that selectsa send button, the device 100 may transmit an answer message includingthe obtained keyword to another device. The device 100 may transmit theanswer message including the selected recommendation image to anotherdevice.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart provided to explain a method for providingrecommendation information which is includable in an answer message by adevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

At step S2401, the device 100 may receive a question message from afirst device.

At step S2403, the device 100 may display the received question messageon a dialog window.

At step S2405, the device 100 may receive a question message from asecond device.

At step S2407, the device 100 may determine whether a user input thatinputs tag information is received through an input filed of the dialogwindow.

In response to the user input being received, at step S2409, the device100 may display identification information of the second device on theinput filed of the dialog window.

At step S2411, the device 100 may determine whether a user input thatinputs an answer message is received though the input field of thedialog window.

In response to the user input being received, the device 100 may displaythe received answer message on the input filed of the dialog window.According to the user input that selects a send button, at step S2413,the device 100 may transmit the displayed answer message to the seconddevice.

The components of the device 100 described above may be differentlynamed. Further, the device 100 according to the present disclosure mayinclude at least one of the above-described components. Some componentsmay be omitted or other additional components may be further included.

An embodiment of the present disclosure may also be embodied in the formof a recording medium including instructions executable by a computersuch as a program module executed by a computer. Computer readablemedium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computerand includes both volatile and nonvolatile media and both removable andnon-removable media. The computer-readable medium may also include bothcomputer storage medium and communication medium. Computer storagemedium may include both volatile and nonvolatile media and removable andnon-removable media implemented by any method or technology for storageof information such as computer readable commands, data structures,program modules or other data. Communication media may typically includecomputer readable commands, data structures, program modules, or otherdata in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave, othertransmission mechanism or arbitrary information transmission medium.

Embodiments are provided to more sincerely and fully disclose theinvention and to completely transfer the spirit of the invention tothose skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, and the scopeof the invention should be understood by the claims of the invention.Accordingly, it will be understood by those of skill in the art thatvarious changes in form and details may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the followingclaims. For example, each component described as a single entity may bedistributed and implemented, and components described as beingdistributed may also be implemented in a combined form.

Although embodiments have been shown and described, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made tothese embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit ofthe present disclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosureis not construed as being limited to the described embodiments, but isdefined by the appended claims as well as equivalents thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: a display; acommunication circuit; a user input device; and a processor configuredto: control receiving, from another electronic device, via thecommunication circuit, information including a first question message;control the display to display a plurality of selectable pieces ofrecommendation information which are includable in an answer message forthe received first question message, and relationships between theplurality of pieces of recommendation information; receive, via the userinput device, user input for selecting at least one of the plurality ofpieces of recommendation information; generating an answer messageincluding the user selected recommendation information; and controltransmitting, to the other electronic device, via the communicationcircuit, the answer message.
 2. The electronic device as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the relationships between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information comprise a tree structure or a radialstructure.
 3. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein therelationships between the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation are connections based on weight values relating to at leastone attribute among preference, importance, location, time or atmosphereof the plurality of pieces of recommendation information.
 4. Theelectronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of piecesof recommendation information are generated based on content registeredby a user.
 5. The electronic device as claimed in claim 4, wherein theplurality of pieces of recommendation information are generated based ontag information and importance of the registered content.
 6. Theelectronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of piecesof recommendation information are generated based on retrieved,captured, photographed or noted data.
 7. The electronic device asclaimed in claim 1, wherein, based on the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information comprising images, the answer messageincludes a keyword obtained from at least one image selected from theimages.
 8. The electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein, basedon the plurality of pieces of recommendation information comprisingimages, the answer message includes at least one image selected from theimages.
 9. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein theprocessor is configured to, based on receiving a second question messagefrom a further electronic device while the first question messagereceived from the other electronic device is displayed on a dialogwindow, control the display to automatically display identificationinformation of the further electronic device on an input field of thedialog window according to a user input for tag information on the inputfield of the dialog window.
 10. The device as claimed in claim 1,wherein the processor is configured to, based on receiving a secondquestion message from a further electronic device while the firstquestion message received from the other electronic device is displayedon a dialog window, control transmitting a second answer message to thefurther electronic device according to a user input for tag information,identification information of the further electronic device, and thesecond answer message for the second question message on an input fieldof the dialog window.
 11. A method for an electronic device, the methodcomprising: receiving a question message from another electronic device;displaying a plurality of selectable pieces of recommendationinformation which are includable in an answer message for the receivedquestion message, relationships between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information; based on user input for selecting at leastone of the plurality of pieces of recommendation information, generatingan answer message including the selected recommendation information; andtransmitting, to the other electronic device, the answer message. 12.The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the relationships between theplurality of pieces of recommendation information comprise a treestructure or a radial structure.
 13. The method as claimed in claim 11,wherein the relationships between the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information are connections based on weight valuesregarding at least one attribute among preference, importance, location,time or atmosphere of the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation.
 14. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein theplurality of pieces of recommendation information are generated based oncontent registered by a user.
 15. The method as claimed in claim 14,wherein the plurality of pieces of recommendation information aregenerated based on tag information and importance of the registeredcontent.
 16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions which, when executed by a processor of an electronicdevice, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising:receiving a question message from another electronic device; displaying,on a display of the electronic device, a plurality of selectable piecesof recommendation information which are includable in an answer messagefor the received question message, and relationships between theplurality of pieces of recommendation information; based on user inputfor selecting at least one of the plurality of pieces of recommendationinformation, generating an answer message including the selectedrecommendation information; and transmitting, to the other electronicdevice, the answer message.
 17. The electronic device as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the user input device comprises a touch screen and theuser input for selecting at least one of the plurality of pieces ofrecommendation information comprises user input received by thetouchscreen.